The junction of Shanxi and Shaanxi is a large river in northern China known as the "Jiuqu Yellow River".
Not far from the river is a remote village covered by loess, with a population of 119 households and only a small dirt road leading to the outside world.
In the village called Lijiacun, the largest family is named Qin. There are three generations of the Qin family, and there is an old man in his seventies. During the holidays, he always sends some white flour, steamed buns, pork, etc. to the poor in the village.
people.
Everyone in the village respectfully calls him Mr. Qin. There are two types of people who call him Mr., one is Mr. who teaches, and the other is Mr. Yin-Yang who knows Feng Shui. Mr. Qin is the latter.
The Qin family is an outsider. They moved here more than ten years ago. It is not so much a move as a flight. It was almost evening when Mr. Qin and his family hurriedly entered Lijia Village carrying large and small bags.
In late autumn, night comes much earlier, and it is already dark. The little boy, who was being held by the young woman, fell down many times on the bumpy dirt road.
Mr. Qin, who was walking at the front, did not stop to hug the boy. He just stared at a house in the south of the village, frowning deeper and deeper.
The others following behind only heard Mr. Qin whispering softly: "The combination of extreme metal will bring disaster to Saturn, the metal will be even more fierce when it is supported by earth, the evil person will be mourned year after year, and the lights will go out and the house will not be peaceful."
Walking to the largest courtyard in the center of the village, Mr. Qin took out the key and opened the courtyard door. After everyone entered the courtyard, he locked the heavy wooden courtyard door tightly and walked into the house without saying a word.
The next day was a sunny day with a warm sun. After breakfast, Mr. Qin put on his sheepskin coat, carried a long cigarette rod and a cigarette bag, and headed to Motai at the entrance of the village.
The heavy stone mill is quite old, and occasionally someone grinds some corn kernels. It usually becomes a gathering place for people in the village to chat and bask in the sun after meals.
When Mr. Qin arrived at the entrance of the village, there was already an old man smoking a dry cigarette sitting on the stone grinding table.
The old man raised his head and took a look at Mr. Qin, who had the same dark skin as him and the image of an old farmer. He didn't say anything and just kept his head down and smoked the drought.
Mr. Qin didn't say anything, and sat on the grinding platform not far from the old man's house.
Take out the dry tobacco rod, carefully fill the tobacco bag with cut tobacco, and finally pick up the cut tobacco that fell on the grinding table little by little and stuff it into the pipe.
He took out the match from his pocket, stroked it once, and took two puffs from the cigarette rod. A thick smoke came out of his mouth. Mr. Qin's face was filled with satisfaction.
The smoke floated gently to the old man next to him. The old man sniffed his nose, glanced at Mr. Qin, then looked down at his pipe, and put the pipe away without saying a word.
Mr. Qin leisurely finished smoking a pipe of tobacco, looked at the old man not far away, and threw his cigarette bag away.
"Old man, try this. I asked someone to bring it back from Yunnan. The tobacco from Yunnan is more fragrant than the tobacco here."
The old man glanced at Mr. Qin, and then at the cigarette bag beside him.
The old man swallowed his saliva, poured out the remaining tobacco from his pipe without saying a word, and filled half a pipe with Mr. Qin's tobacco.
After lighting it, I took a few puffs, closed my eyes, and a silly smile appeared on my wrinkled old face.
Speaking in authentic northern Shaanxi dialect: "You are a new mover. When you bought the yard a few days ago, I saw you from afar."
"Well, it's time for darkness yesterday."
Mr. Qin then pointed to the south of the village and said, "When I passed by Nada last night, I heard someone crying."
The old man raised his head and glanced at where Mr. Qin was pointing, shook his head, his face full of pity, and took a long puff of his pipe.
"Hey, that's Li Dafu's house, he's also a poor man."
Mr. Qin moved to the side of the old man's house, picked up the cigarette bag, added a pipe and lit it for himself, and glanced to the south: "My father-in-law, what did you say?"
The simple old man seemed a little embarrassed not to say anything because he had smoked Mr. Qin's tobacco, so he started chatting immediately.
Li Dafu, one of the few people in the village who had gone out to work in the city, saved some money and came back a few years ago to demolish the old house and build this new one.
But since the house was built, accidents happened one after another. First, my daughter broke her foot, and then my mother-in-law (wife) fell off the roof while drying beans and lost her eye.
Some time ago, Dafu went to the crop field to deliver food to his mother, and found his mother lying dead on the field. After the funeral, when they were being buried, they heard a noise in the coffin. When they opened the coffin, they found that his mother was still alive. This caused another shock.
Brought it back.
The strange thing is that after the wealthy woman came back, she stayed in the house all day and refused to go anywhere. Within a few days, first of all, the chickens she raised at home were bitten to death by ferocious beasts at night.
In the next few days, the same thing happened to the neighboring chickens. The people in the village suspected that it was a weasel and sent people to watch for several days and nights, but nothing was found.
Later at night, there would be strange noises in the wealthy family's house, which would often make the little children nearby cry in fright.
More and more people came to Shimotai. People chatted about one thing or another, and the whole morning passed. During lunch time, Mr. Qin gave half a bag of shredded tobacco to the old man, and then he swayed around with his tobacco pole.
's home.
Mr. Qin's second son, named Qin Xi, was standing behind Mr. Qin who was squatting at the door and smoking pipes one after another.
"Dad, what's the matter? Can't you think about it after dinner? What are you doing?"
"The Death-Destroying Evil is second only to the Five Ghost Evils. Now that I have encountered it, it is what is destined for me. I will go to Li Dafu's house later."
"Dad, what? We moved here just to live a stable life. Didn't you also say that you would never help others deal with these things again?"
"Qin Xi, there are things a man does and things he doesn't do! It's not a man's behavior to refuse to save someone! It's been decided, go back to the house for dinner!"
Mr. Qin stared and put out the pipe in his hand and strode back to the house.
In the evening, Mr. Qin went out carrying a cloth bag and walked to the south of the village about a quarter of an hour later.
Mr. Qin first walked around Li Dafu's house and buried four copper coins in four directions: southeast, northwest, and southeast. He stood at the door of the courtyard, buried a copper coin under the threshold, and then started knocking on the door.
.
After a while, the courtyard door opened, and it was a middle-aged man who opened the door. The man wore a cloth hat, and his eyes were bloodshot. Due to weight loss, his cheekbones on his face were particularly prominent. The man said hoarsely: "Old man,
Can I help you?"
Mr. Qin stared at the man for a moment, convinced that he was not a very evil person.
"Are you Li Dafu?"
"Well, who are you?"
The man inside the door asked doubtfully, without taking his hands off the door.
"To the south of Qianmen, in the direction of Sunda, there is Venus that will destroy the army and bring disasters to Lucun. The evils are getting worse. The eldest wife and middle daughter in the family will have disasters, and the children will be injured. After turning off the lights at night, there is a noise in the house, which is sneaky. If you don't deal with it in time, you'll have to wait for a funeral every year! Take off your hat, you should start to go bald!"
The thin man inside the door stared at the old man outside the door for a long time. His whole body suddenly collapsed and tears burst into his eyes. The man grabbed the old man's sleeves and suddenly fell to his knees: "Old god, please save my family, I am Li Dafu !”
Mr. Qin said "I can't do it, I can't do it" and hurriedly helped Li Dafu up.
"Come in and talk, I have something to ask you! My surname is Qin, just call me Lao Qin!"
The two of them entered the house one after another. Li Dafu felt calmer now and poured a bowl of hot water for Mr. Qin.
"Old fairy, what do you want to ask? Is there something unclean in my house?"
Mr. Qin was not polite. He sat down on the fire bed, picked up the bowl and drank some water.
"Did you offend the builder who repaired the house?"
Li Dafu thought for a long time and said: "No, the craftsmen who repaired the house are very good. They talk less, eat less, work quickly, and the wages are not much, that is, just..."
"What is it?" Mr. Qin asked loudly.
"That's right, a few of them have unusually long faces, and everyone secretly says they look like weasels!" Li Dafu said in one breath, as if he had made a lot of determination.
After hearing this, Mr. Qin frowned, picked up the bowl and took a sip of water, took out the cigarette stick from the cloth bag and lit it. He didn't say anything for a long time, but kept smoking the cigarette.
"Have you ever offended Huang Pizi before?" Mr. Qin looked at Li Dafu, who had taken off his hat and revealed some bald patches of hair.
"No! Weasels are very rare these days!" Li Dafu replied without thinking.
"If you think about it carefully, what about earlier?"
"That being said, this really happened a long time ago!"
Li Dafu recalled that he had just entered the city ten years ago. At that time, he was working on a construction site, probably in the days before the Chinese New Year.
One night, Dafu and his coworkers just walked into the dormitory yard and found a weasel sneaking into the chicken coop and biting one of the big roosters. The rooster was bought by everyone before and was put in the chicken coop to prepare New Year stew. food.
Strange to say, the weasel actually looked like a human, standing on its hind legs with its two front paws closed, and bowed to everyone.
Some workers from the Northeast said that this was Wong Tai Sin, so just let it go. Li Dafu was particularly angry because it ate the same one that Dafu bought, and it was originally intended to be a Chinese New Year stew for his old mother.
Dafu was furious and refused to let the weasel go. He picked up the shovel he brought with him, beat it to death and threw it into the grass on the side of the road.
At this time, Li Dafu, who was over fifty, seemed to have thought of something, and his voice began to tremble when he spoke.
"Is it the Wong Tai Sin I killed? Old god, what should I do?"
Mr. Qin sighed, "Hey, this shovel of yours has ruined his career for many years. No wonder I want to take revenge on you like this. You go and prepare a few things as I told you, and call two or three strong men by the way." Come help."
A few hours later, Li Dafu entered the yard with a rooster in his hand, followed by three men of about the same age as him.
After saying hello, Mr. Qin took the rooster from Li Dafu's hand and took out a piece of red thread from the cloth bag he carried. He tied a complicated-looking knot on the two paws of the rooster, and then
Throw the rooster into the middle of the yard.
One of the men who followed Dafu heard the whole story on the way here and walked a few steps closer to Mr. Qin who was sitting at the door smoking a cigarette.
The man glanced at the curtained house to the south and asked cautiously: "Old fairy, is Dafu really a monster?"
Mr. Qin glanced at the people who were staring at him and chuckled: "What it is, you will know when it gets completely dark. Then you can see for yourselves!"
After finishing speaking, Mr. Qin packed up his cigarette rod and walked into the house. He lay down on Li Dafu's Kang and rested with his eyes closed.
The four people outside the house looked at each other, then walked into the house in unison, and sat down on the kang next to Mr. Qin.
At about nine o'clock in the night, Mr. Qin woke up with a yawn. He picked up a stone on the ground in front of the house and threw it at the big rooster lying in the middle of the yard.
"Goo" cried out.
The door of the south house was suddenly opened from the inside. Li Dafu's mother rushed out of the house at a speed that a seventy-year-old should not have and rushed towards the big rooster in the center of the yard.
At the same time, Mr. Qin pounced on the big rooster, but Mr. Qin pounced on Li Dafu's mother.
At this time, Mr. Qin was pressing the old lady's arms and yelling at several people: "Hurry up and tie it up with a rope!"
The four Li Dafu were so frightened by the fierce look in the old lady's eyes that no one dared to step forward.
During this moment of hesitation, the old lady's hands suddenly grew inch-long black nails, which dug into Mr. Qin's arms.
Mr. Qin instantly felt the pain and sweat began to appear on his forehead. In desperation, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood onto the old lady's face.
The old lady's face seemed to be scorched by fire. As a pungent black smoke came out, she loosened her grip on Mr. Qin's arm and let out a scream that sounded like some kind of animal.
The four people who reacted at this time quickly wrapped the old lady tightly with ropes and pushed her to the ground.
Mr. Qin got up, looked at the bleeding wound on his arm, and sighed: "Dafu, your mother did pass away before. This body was taken over by a monster. Use the peach tree branches I asked you to prepare and burn it quickly.
Get buried."
Li Dafu, whose legs were shaking so much that he almost wet his pants, shivered for a long time without making any movement. After a long time, he stood up with difficulty and said: "Fortunately, I listened to the old god and sent my mother-in-law and daughter to someone else's house to hide.
”.
The old lady, who was tied and rolling on the ground, was struggling constantly and making strange screams from her mouth.
Mr. Qin glared at her: "What? You have harmed so many people, and you are still reasonable?"
"What has happened to Taoism for more than a hundred years? It is unacceptable to kill others to pay for their lives!"
"Beast, if you don't make trouble, I will take you in now!"
Mr. Qin shouted loudly, and the old lady who had been struggling with the rope finally became calmer.
When Mr. Qin saw this, he turned around, took out a packet of medicinal powder from his cloth bag, sprinkled it on the wound on his arm, and grinned in pain.
At this time, a puff of yellow smoke suddenly floated out from the old lady's body, and the stench emitted made several people present feel suffocated. Then they saw that the old lady had broken free from the rope and was rushing towards the courtyard door.
Li Dafu shouted anxiously: "Old god, hurry up!"
Instead, Mr. Qin looked calm and played with the copper coins in his hand.
I saw the old lady spinning in circles at the courtyard gate, unable to cross the threshold. The angry old lady turned her head, stared at Mr. Qin, roared, bared her vicious teeth, and rushed over.
"You beast, you will never change your nature! Kill him!"
Mr. Qin took out a copper coin sword strung with red thread from his cloth bag and stabbed the old lady in the chest.
The copper coin sword was like a sharp sword. Everyone heard a "pop" sound and the copper sword pierced the old lady's chest.
The old lady screamed for a while and then fell to the ground. Mr. Qin took out his copper coin sword, looked at several completely changed copper coins, and shook his head sadly: "Oh, one more thing is missing!"
Li Dafu and others had already lit the peach branches, and Mr. Qin watched them carry the old lady into the fire before leaving with peace of mind.
Before leaving the hospital, Mr. Qin said again: "Find someone to demolish the house in front of Nandong and turn it into a toilet. Also, replace the doors and windows. The black courtyard door must be matched with green doors and windows."
Many years later, Mr. Qin became deaf in one ear and could not hear a sound at all.
An old man in the village said that it was because he often helped people in the village and leaked too many secrets.
In the next few years, Mr. Qin no longer worked for others. However, when someone built a new house, he would help look at the homestead; if someone died in the village, he would help look at the cemetery; and he would give a name to the newborn.
Except for such trivial matters.
Why do I know everything about Lijiacun?
Because Mr. Qin is my grandfather, the elderly people in the village often talk about my grandfather when chatting!